Doesn't recognize original server when moving from old Mac to new Mac

[robrogan]

Server Version#: 4.143.0

First of all, I read this article here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/

I followed that, and it sounded pretty easy. Fresh install on the new machine, gut out the initial files it creates and dump in all the old files from my source mac.

Whenever I start the server on the new/destination mac, it creates a new server named after my local machine and it shows the name of my old server with an error that it’s unable to connect.

I’ve gone back and forth with ChatGPT on this a lot, because it’s usually super good at troubleshooting. It seems to have narrowed it down to Preferences.xml in the Application Settings / Plex Media Server folder. This file needs to have the same exact MachineIdentifier as my old computer in order for PMS to recognize the server on this new machine.

Here’s where it gets crazy.

1. I compressed the entire folder from my old Mac, and moved it over, uncompressed, and replaced the new folder. There’s no Preferences file in there!
2. I check on my original server in the old mac. Nope, no preferences file. Then what the heck was PMS using all this time? I did find a /Application Support/Plex/Plex Media Server/ folder (no idea why it’s different) and that had a preference file. So I copied that over.
3. Reboot the PMS on new mac and get the same result
4. Worked with ChatGPT another hour trying to scour various .log files for a mention of the Machine ID because I suspect the preference file is wrong. Finally found out I can do this https://support.plex.tv/articles/201638786-plex-media-server-url-commands/ to get it from my old mac in the browser. (It was in fact a different ID)
5. Feeling SUPER ready to have my problem solved, I edit the Preferences.xml with this confirmed MachineIdentifier from the original server, saved it, launched the PMS again… same result / not working

At this point ChatGPT is also at a loss. I dunno what to do or where to even look at this point. I’ve copied all the files that I can think of (also the .plist, even my old cache files for good measure) but it’s acting like it doesn’t have any information at all when I launch the new PMS.

So my question for the community is mainly: what should I try next, or what advice do you have?

If you’re an engineer at plex or really know deeply how things work, I’d also like to know where exactly is PMS looking to confirm the machine identity is a match for the old server? Out of frustration I completely removed that Preferences file, ran PMS again, and it acts perfectly normal. Created a new server. Did not create a Preferences file. Maybe I’m going down the wrong rabbit hole here. What else should I do to attempt to mimic the old server?

I’m about ready to just start a new server. That’s a last result because I really don’t want to have to send out invites to every single client, and then I just know their Roku or old TV is gonna have my broken-a$$ server listed with an error right below the new server forever hahah

[OttoKerner]

On the Mac, Preferences.xml is not used.

From the above article:

macOS

Using the Finder’s “Go” menu, select Go To Folder… then enter the following in the dialog box that pops up:

~/Library/Preferences/

Copy the com.plexapp.plexmediaserver.plist plist file, located inside that directory. Place the copied file into the same location on the destination system.

[robrogan]

Thanks so much for the clarification about this! I did initially copy over this file because the article said to copy it, but when I started looking at the actual contents I noticed that launching the PMS caused it to be overwritten by a “fresh” (mostly empty) plist content.

I deleted everything related to Plex from my destination machine and started over completely. Not sure what I did the first time around that messed things up, maybe I put the plist in the wrong folder, but it worked perfectly this time!

I had to make a couple of expected modifications, like the folder name for my pre-rolls but new PMS is recognizing the original server and metadata perfectly.